Monmouth head coach King Rice, who guided the Hawks to the NEC Tournament in his first year, returns to the sidelines on Friday night when the Hawks host Hofstra in the season opener for both schools.

Monmouth, which tied for fifth place in the league standings in 2011-12 and claimed the No. 6 seed in the conference postseason, finished last year 7-5 at home.

The Hawks won nine of their last 12 games last season to finish 12-20 overall and 10-8 in the NEC. Monmouth posted its first NEC regular season winning record since its championship season in 2005-06.

Last season, Monmouth University earned its 250th all-time Northeast Conference win, joining three other current league institutions to do so (FDU, RMU and LIU).

Monmouth faced three nationally ranked opponents last year, including No. 25 Harvard at home. The Hawks also traveled to No. 22/18 Vanderbilt in November and No. 6 North Carolina on New Year's Day.

Three members of Monmouth's current squad have been named to the Northeast Conference All-Rookie Team, upping Monmouth's program total to 17 players who have earned that distinction from the league. The three members include seniors Ed Waite, Marcus Ware and Dion Nesmith.

Monmouth went 2-11 in straight road games in 2010-11, and after going 2-0 on a neutral court, ended the year 4-11 overall away from home. Monmouth opened this year with eight straight road losses, and is now 4-14 away from home, after three straight NEC road wins for the first time in six years.